Up Country Tamils: Charting a New Future in Sri Lanka This indicates the need of citizen-centric governance where deserving people and communities would make an influence in public service and governance structures. Some empirical evidence and anecdotal case studies from India, Kenya, Bangladesh and many African countries demonstrate the positive impact of this approach (see Einhorn 2007). New partnerships between public institutions and civil society, people’s movements and communitybased organisations, and cross–community networks are some avenues to enhance service delivery. Moreover, empowering these organisations could minimise the elite capture and domination in public service delivery at the local level. Public institutions link citizens with public services and governance and to participate in civic life and processes. When these institutions work effectively in line with quality of governance principles, they provide opportunities to overcome socioeconomic issues and other forms of discrimination and power asymmetry in governance. On the contrary, if they deteriorate and become corrupt, unfair and ineffective, then the public services become privileges accessed primarily by those already with power, resources, informal networks, and relationships, where ethnicity, language, caste, gender, religion, political affiliations, profession, and many other overt and covert factors determine the working of public institutions. 48